The Tampa Bay Lightning hope to pick up where they left off before the 4 Nations Face-Off break.
Winners of an Eastern Conference-high four straight games, the Lightning will re-start their season on Sunday evening by hosting the Seattle Kraken.
On Dec. 14, Tampa Bay finished a four-game trek at 3-1-0 with a 5-1 pasting of the Kraken, improving the Lightning’s all-time record against the Pacific Division team to 6-0-1.
Basically, Tampa Bay has done to Seattle what it has been doing to the NHL this month, but it was not easy in four games over six days against division opponents before the hiatus.
Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy was victorious for the fourth straight start on Feb. 9, making 32 saves to win both ends of a back-to-back set in Detroit and Montreal and go 5-0-1 before the break.
“We had four games in six nights — not even six nights,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “It’s a grind, this league. We were 3-9 in the division, but we got eight points in four games.”
Nikita Kucherov leads the team in assists (57) and points (82) this season.
The Kraken have two strikes against them in a quest to make the playoffs for the second time in their four seasons in the NHL, as the time frame and schedule breakdown do not work in Seattle’s favor.
The Kraken beat the Florida Panthers 2-1 on Saturday night but has played 58 matches, a Western Conference-high-tying amount equaled only by Colorado.
On the schedule front, the Kraken will have to play four more matches on the road than at home in the remainder. They are better on home ice, notching points in 17 of 31 contests (13-14-4).
In the win over the Stanley Cup champs, Jared McCann potted the game-winner against his former team. Kaapo Kakko also scored, and Shane Wright posted two assists in moving Seattle’s all-time record to 5-2-1 against Florida.
However, the Kraken’s only victory over Tampa Bay was 4-3 in overtime on Oct. 30, 2023.
Captain Jordan Eberle, 34, on Saturday returned after a 40-game absence due to a pelvic injury and logged 14:03 of ice time and put two of Seattle’s 22 shots on goal.
“A lot of other guys, if they were to get hurt like that, I don’t think they would be back as quickly as he is,” McCann said. “He was so motivated. He’s so mentally strong in that he was just like, ‘It’s a bump of the road and I’m going to move forward.’
“He’s awesome to have around, especially for the young guys to see a guy go through a pretty major injury and just be so positive.”
Jaden Schwartz tops Seattle with 18 goals, while McCann has 43 points.
Brandon Montour, who hoisted the Cup with the Panthers last season, leads the defensive corps with 27 points (10 goals, 17 assists).
In his 25 matches since being traded west on Dec. 18 from the New York Rangers, Kakko has 18 points (six goals, 12 assists).
–Field Level Media
